Charon, Pluto’s Companion: What We’re Learning from New Horizons (with Dr. Ross Beyer)
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
English - March 01, 2022 23:00 - 1 hour - 52.8 MB - ★★★★ - 5 ratingsAstronomy Science astronomy free talks space science science space astrophysics fraknoi cosmology astronomers Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Pluto’s large moon Charon turned out to be far more interesting than astronomers expected. Pluto was the star when the New Horizons probe flew by, but the features on Charon’s surface tell a fascinating tale of how icy worlds could form far from the gravitational influences of the giant planets. There is evidence of a world-wide sub-surface ocean early on, and of global expansion as that ocean froze solid. Charon’s surface also has a region of plains where icy materials may once have flowed and smoothed over the fractures present elsewhere on its surface. Dr. Beyer is your expert guide through this story of formation and change in the frozen reaches of the outer Solar System.
Dr. Ross Beyer is a Planetary Scientist with the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute and at NASA's Ames Research Center.
This talk was given May 15, 2019